AB1283 COVID-19 WAS NOT TRIGGER FOR RHEUMATIC DISEASE ACTIVITY AFTER 6 MONTHS FOLLOW-UP: RESULTS FROM REUMACOV BRASIL REGISTER
Authors: C. Marques, R. Xavier, S. Ribeiro, J. Scrignoli, L. D. D. A. Valadares, R. Cavalheiro Do Espírito Santo, N. Sartori, C. Z. Costa, P. Nacácio e Silva, V. De Souza, F. Machado Ribeiro, F. Omura, G. Resende, S. Katsuyuki Shinjo, V. Barbosa, M. Peixoto Gu e Silva de Souza, M. Carvalho, M. Alexandre Yazbek, V. Valim, L. Rocha, A. S. Martins, A. B. Bacchiega, A. K. Melo, S. Carneiro, A. Marinho, A. Kakehasi, G. Ferreira, G. Salviato Pileggi, E. Reis Neto, L. Mota, A. P. Gomides, M. Pinheiro
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2023)

<h3>Background</h3> The COVID-19 pandemic has brought uncertainties to rheumatology practice, mainly related to the possibility of triggering disease activity after infection in immune mediated rheumatic diseases (IMRD). To date, there are few data in the literature specifically evaluating this issue. <h3>Objectives</h3> Evaluate the disease activity in IMRD patients after 6 months of the infection, compared to pre infection status. <h3>Methods</h3> ReumaCoV Brasil is a longitudinal study performed at 35 study centers designed to follow-up IMRD patients for 6 months after clinical or laboratorial COVID-19 diagnosis (cases), comparing with patients with IMRD who had not had the infection at the time of inclusion (controls). Demographic data such as age, sex, comorbidities, clinical characteristics, treatment, evolution of COVID-19 and disease activity status were collected using a Research Eletronic Data Capture (REDCap) database on three consecutive visits (inclusion and 6 months). The analysis was carried out on the four diseases with the highest inclusion number in the study: systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). In addition to specific disease activity assessment metrics, we used patient's global assessment of disease activity (PGA), ranging from 0 to 10, at all visits, with 0 being no activity and 10 being intense activity. All conclusions were drawn considering the significance level of 5%. This study was registered at the Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials—REBEC, RBR-33YTQC. All patients read and signed the informed consent form before inclusion. <h3>Results</h3> Between May 2020 and January 2021, 2032 patients were included in the registry, and of these, 1322 patients (721 cases and 601 controls), completed 6 months of follow-up, being 550 SLE (42.0%), 497 RA (37.6%) and 176 SpA (13.3%) and 99 (7.4%) PsA. Most patients were female (82.0%); the median age was 46.7 (13.8). Disease activity at the time of enrollment, according to the PGA, was similar between cases and controls, except for patients with RA and AS, where it was higher in controls. After the follow up time, no worsening of activity was observed in any of the diseases evaluated in the case group (Table 1). Despite this, worsening of disease symptoms after COVID-19 was reported by 23.3%, 24.6%, 25.0% and 25.8% of patients with SLE, RA, AS and PsA respectively, not related with disease activity. <h3>Conclusion</h3> In patients with IMRD, no worsening of disease activity was observed after COVID-19 in this cohort of Brazilian patients. Despite this, many patients noticed worsening of symptoms, possibly associated not with the triggering of the activity, but with the so-called long COVID syndrome. <h3>Acknowledgements</h3> ReumaCoV Brasil researchers, Brazilian Society of Rheumatology and National Council for Ccientific and Technological Development. <h3>Disclosure of Interests</h3> None Declared.